WWE Stomping Grounds Recap: June 23, 2019

A.K.A The Best Stomping Grounds Of All Time

The first ever WWE Stomping Grounds has arrived. While the card is full of rematches, it still has the potential to deliver with in ring product. Who will be the special referee for Baron Corbin versus Seth Rollins? Will any of the titles change hands? Let’s find out together, shall we? It’s time for some Stomping!

Results:

  • Drew Gulak def. Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese to become WWE Cruiserweight Champion
  • Becky Lynch def. Lacey Evans to retain the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship
  • Kevin Owen’s & Sami Zayn def. New Day
  • Ricochet def. Samoa Joe to become WWE United States Champion
  • Daniel Bryan & Rowan def. Heavy Machinery to retain the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships
  • Bayley def. Alexa Bliss to retain the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship
  • Roman Reigns def. Shane McMahon
  • Kofi Kingston def. Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship
  • Seth Rollins def. Baron Corbin to retain the WWE Universal Championship; Lacey Evans was Special Guest Referee
Latest Wrestling News


Match of the Night: Drew Gulak def. Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese to become WWE Cruiserweight Champion

205 Live’s competitors kicked the night off in a big way. It truly is a shame that the Cruiserweight Championship finds itself on the pre-show, because the matches are always spectacles. Nese, Gulak, and Tozawa all looked like they had this won at different times. In the end, it was Gulak who capitalized and captured his first Cruiserweight Title. Nese didn’t get pinned to end the match, meaning he has a legitimate claim to a shot at the new champion.

Three Thoughts

Lowered Expectations, High Results

The expectations for Stomping Grounds weren’t high. With so many rematches on the card, people expected a retread of Super ShowDown. Instead fans were treated to amazing matchups.  Ricochet-Joe was a hard hitting affair. Reigns and McIntyre put on a heavyweight slugfest. Bliss and Bayley told a great story. Both tag team matches had fans on the edge of their seats. And we already talked about the Cruiserweight title triple threat.

We may never know if the initial reaction to the card caused the WWE roster to come out swinging or not. What we do know is that the matches we got were next level.

On To The Next Ones

The matches were good quality and worked well as resolutions. Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston both seemed to put their long feuds to bed. Now is the time for new challengers to emerge for all of them. Who will step up for Kingston’s or Lynch’s titles is still a mystery. Some other future angles were set up or furthered on Stomping Grounds.

After Ricochet won the United States title, A.J. Styles approached him backstage and said he’d “see him tomorrow”. A Styles-Ricochet feud for the United States Championship is a great way to add more focus to a title that had been on the back burner for a few months.

In less exciting news, it seems the feud between Reigns and Shane McMahon will continue, as McMahon booked himself in a two-on-one handicap match with Drew McIntyre against Reigns on Raw. Hopefully that will be the cap on their long and tired feud.

The Pitfalls of the Reality Era

Ever since their relationship was announced on social media, WWE seems insistent on making sure fans know Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch are dating. While it is great that the two are happy, WWE’s use of their real-life relationship in storyline has been terrible. It has lead to cringe-worthy interactions during Monday Night Raw. The Universal Championship picture has turned into a pseudo-relationship drama.

Lynch did interfere in the main event, which almost everyone predicted when Evans was announced as the referee. The angle played out more like an episode of Raw instead of a main event pay-per-view angle. Rollins seemed to definitively close the book on his feud with Corbin, so maybe greener pastures are on the horizon.

Grade: B+

The first two-thirds of the show was white-hot. The final two matches didn’t live up to the standard set by the beginning of the card. WWE was carried by the strength of it’s midcard for this show. This could mean that WWE needs to change the players in it’s main event angles, or could just speak to the strength and depth of the WWE roster right now. Either way, the show was fantastic for most of it, but faded away instead of ending with a bang.

One More Thing:

Ryan Satin sums up our feelings about Otis.

– Evan Gomes is the Managing Editor of Pro Wrestling for Full Press Coverage. Like and follow on and Facebook.

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